Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) January 28, 2015: Following the
Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, Pope
Francis offered his thoughts about the tragic event. His widely reported
remarks appeared to be extemporaneous.

However, in a piece titled "Pope Francis vs. Free Speech?"
posted online at RealClearReligion and dated January 28, 2015, Patrick
Callahan, professor emeritus of political science at DePaul University, a Roman
Catholic university in Chicago, Illinois, undertakes to show that Pope
Francis's seemingly off-the-cuff remarks are based on his church's official
social teachings. It is not exactly surprising that the pope's remarks would
reflect official church teaching.

However, certain non-Catholic Americans might be surprised
to learn that "the teachings of the church offers little direct support for any
of the civil liberties -- other than freedom of religion -- and much of the
support it provides is contingent and therefore tepid," as Callahan points out.

Moreover, Callahan says, "what the church considers false
civil freedom -- an exercise of one's autonomy -- is exactly what most Westerners
mean by freedom."

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Even though the two statements made by Callahan may sound
like criticisms of church teachings, he is not writing an editorial criticizing
the church's teachings. Instead, he is writing an explanation and clarification
of the church's teachings for the benefit of people who might not already be
familiar with those teachings.

However, in the present essay I am writing an editorial
criticizing the church's teachings that Callahan discusses.

Callahan has already introduced us to the church's either-or
thinking about false civil freedom and true civil freedom.

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For example, in the church's view, it is false civil freedom
for the civil government to legalize abortion in the first trimester, as the
1973 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court did in Roe v. Wade.

In effect, in the church's view, true civil freedom exists
only when the civil laws consider lawful only what the bishops consider to be
in accord with their tradition of natural-law moral theory.

Now, in the church's either-or thinking, autonomy and
reciprocal bonds are thought to be opposites and therefore mutually exclusive.

Just to be clear, the church's either-or thinking starts
with the either-or premise of good and evil, which are thought of as opposites
that are mutually exclusive.

Callahan quotes The
Catechism of the Catholic Church as saying the following: "'The more one
does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in
the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an
abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin."'"

So the false civil freedom mentioned above is not in the
service of what is good and just. But what is in the service of what is good
and just? Only what the Catholic tradition of natural-law moral theory says is
good and just.

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However, American society today is pluralistic. Not all
Americans are practicing Roman Catholics. Not all Americans would agree with
the claims of Catholic natural-law moral theory. (This moral theory is referred
to as natural-law moral theory because everybody is supposed to be capable of
understanding the so-called natural law.)

Basically, as Callahan explains, one is supposed to be "able
to behave according to one's fundamental nature." And the bishops have figured
out our fundamental nature.

Callahan says, "Our basic inclination is to seek God, and
freedom must be understood in that light. If we exercise our free will to obey
the moral law and grow closer to God, then we are free; if we exercise our free
will to sin, then we are not free."

Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book (more...)

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